Irish in the NFL: Dolphins sign Jonathan Bonner to practice squad

The Miami Dolphins signed former Notre Dame defensive tackle Jonathan Bonner to their practice squad, keeping his NFL dreams alive.

The long and winding road for former Notre Dame defensive end Jonathan Bonner has taken him to Miami.

Bonner, who nearly left Notre Dame after his senior year to pursue a career in IT, decided to come back for his fifth year and helped wreak havoc on the defensive line alongside Jerry Tillery in 2018.

Despite the stellar campaign, Bonner went undrafted in the 2019 NFL Draft. He was quickly picked up by the Redskins however, and played well for them in the preseason before getting cut.

Now, Bonner has been signed to the practice squad of the Miami Dolphins, keeping his NFL dream alive, at least for the time being.

While it won’t be easy to crack the 53-man roster, Miami might very well be the best case scenario for Bonner to make his NFL debut at some point in the final few weeks of the season.

Bonner recorded 64 combined tackles and two sacks with the Irish from 2015-2018.

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Chargers’ Anthony Lynn undecided on if DT Jerry Tillery will play vs. Vikings

Los Angeles Chargers defensive tackle Jerry Tillery’s status is undecided for the Week 15 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings.

Chargers coach Anthony Lynn was non-committal when asked if defensive tackle Jerry Tillery will play this Sunday against the Vikings.

“I like Jerry. This is the type of game that you want Jerry on the field, so we’ll see,” Lynn said.

Tillery, the team’s first-round selection, was an inactive last weekend against the Jaguars, which raised many eyebrows.

Following the game, Lynn said that he felt Sylvester Williams was the more superior option to stopping Jacksonville’s rushing action over Tillery.

Tillery’s season has been met with mixed results. While he’s shown flashes from time to time, he just hasn’t put the pieces together to give reason to believe he was worth the first-round selection.

Even though Lynn wants to have the best players on the field, keeping Tillery off the field isn’t going to do him any good.

The rookie needs to be on the field on a more consistent basis, and they should ride with him through the ups and down in order to get a full evaluation and use the weaknesses to make strengths this upcoming offseason.

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Update on Chargers’ head-scratching inactives

Here’s why Chargers’ Denzel Perryman, Roderic Teamer and Jerry Tillery were inactive ahead of the Week 14 matchup against the Jaguars.

The Los Angeles Chargers pulled away with a monstrous victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. While there was plenty of excitement surrounding the win, there was still one thing that was puzzling.

Prior to the matchup, linebacker Denzel Perryman and safety Roderic Teamer had been ruled out, and then that was followed up with first-round selection Jerry Tillery being among the eight inactives.

Following the game, coach Anthony Lynn didn’t provide too much information, saying that it was “coach’s decision” but did say he sent them home rather than having them stand on the sidelines in street clothes.

Today, the reason why they were sent home came out.

According to ESPN’s Eric D. Williams, Perryman and Teamer missed a morning meeting in Jacksonville, which led to Lynn sending them home on Saturday.

Perryman has been the team’s starting middle linebacker for the past few seasons, but rookie Drue Tranquill has slowly been taking over the role throughout the course of the year.

As for Tillery being an inactive, Lynn said it was for matchup purposes. He rolled with veteran Sylvester Williams in the game to help stop the Jaguars’ run game.

“I wanted to see Sylvester. Sometimes it’s a matchup deal and they were going to run the football. Leonard (Fournette) is having a breakout year. So I needed a bigger body in the middle of our defense, and that’s why Sylvester was up. But Jerry has done nothing wrong. He’s working his tail off, I like his development. It was just a matchup deal,” Lynn said.

Third-round pick Trey Pipkins was also another inactive that raised eyebrows. The team is happy with Pipkins’ production, but with Russell Okung and Sam Tevi back in the starting lineup, it’s more difficult to rotate them in and Trent Scott is currently the preferred backup.

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Anthony Lynn gives praise to Chargers DT Jerry Tillery

Coach Anthony Lynn likes what rookie Jerry Tillery has been doing on the field in his first season.

There aren’t that many players in the league that are under more pressure to meet expectations than first-round selections.

That’s how it’s been for rookie defensive tackle Jerry Tillery.

Taken with the No. 28 overall selection of the 2019 NFL draft, Tillery was brought in to add juice to a defensive line that needed to get after the quarterback from the inside to take stress away from defensive ends Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram.

At first glimpse, Tillery’s numbers wouldn’t suggest a defender that’s doing that as he’s only posted 11 total tackles and 1.5 sacks through 12 games.

But for coach Anthony Lynn, he doesn’t let the stat sheet depict how he feels about the former Notre Dame product.

“I think Jerry has done some good things. He’s long, he’s athletic, he hustles. I love his effort. He might not have the production with sacks, but pressures. He has applied some pressures, which I think are more important than sacks,” Lynn said.

When going further in depth with how Tillery has been performing through the bye week, it’s clear that he’s getting pressure. It might be on every play, but the flashes are there.

There are a few reasons why Tillery hasn’t been effective and one of them is because he hasn’t been used in obvious passing downs, as the team has resorted to defensive end Isaac Rochell in that role.

The other reason is more from a technical standpoint. We pointed out that with how tall he is, he struggles with leverage. Also, he hasn’t been able to counter through double teams.

The bottomline is while Tillery isn’t dominating on a weekly basis, it doesn’t mean he’s a bust. It is never okay to label a first-round pick, let alone any player that in their first season.

Tillery is young and with an offseason to develop, there’s hope he can combine that with his natural physical traits and become a better player in his second year and beyond.

Checking in on Chargers rookie DT Jerry Tillery

Chargers Wire’s Gavino Borquez breaks down the first 11 games of defensive tackle Jerry Tillery’s professional career.

In need of shoring up the interior part of the defensive line, Chargers general manager took former Notre Dame product Jerry Tillery with the team’s first-round selection of the 2019 NFL draft.

The pick had many fans ecstatic when his name was announced and the hype continued to build up entering this season after a phenomenal summer. But since then, Tillery hasn’t been as hot, thus having those wondering what’s going on with the No. 28 overall selection.

Let’s start off with his stat line through 11 games of his rookie campaign.

11 combined tackles and 1.5 sacks

Tillery’s usage is floating slightly above 40% of the defensive snaps, so he’s certainly up there with other notable players at the position — Damion Square (46.8%), Justin Jones (42.8%), Brandon Mebane (37.4%).

Los Angeles drafted Tillery to serve as a key interior pass rusher, so that way he could take some of the pressure off defensive ends Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram. So, why doesn’t his stat sheet suggest that?

The first thing is that the Chargers have primarily played Tillery on first and second down and have resorted to taking him off the field during obvious passing downs. Instead, defensive end Isaac Rochell has been used in that role.

On the field, there has there have been evident growing pains, but Tillery has shown flashes that may go unnoticed. Coming out of college, he beat defenders with speed, strength and pure athleticism.

We see that here as Tillery creates immediate movement with his initial surge and forward lean into the blocker. With him being so lengthy, his pad level has been an issue. But we see when he stays low, he will win the battle.

Tillery has seen a hefty amount of double teams, and one issue that he had since coming out of college is struggling when blockers get to his hip which has still been clear. A part of that has to do with him tending to play high, but also the lack of countering.

But he does a nice job controlling the point of attack when square with blockers, and we have seen glimpses of solid countering when he is locked up with a blocker.

Here, Tillery goes with an arm over on the guard and spins off the center to create pressure on quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Here, Tillery gets locked up with the guard at first, but he throws a club and dips to disengage and shows great effort to pressure quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

Speaking of effort, that also shows in the run game, too. Tillery works down the line of scrimmage and stops running back Derrick Henry in his tracks for a little gain.

Here, he generates good power on this play and he displays great balance, body control and a strong rip move to slither his way through his blocker.

Many think that Tillery is underperforming for a first round selection, but the truth is, even though he’s not as superior statistically, the other defensive tackles that were taken before him aren’t that spectacular in Year 1, either.

New York Jets DT Quinnen Williams (No. 3 overall)

20 combined tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2 tackles for loss

Buffalo Bills DT Ed Oliver (No. 9 overall)

23 combined tackles 2.0 sacks, 1 tackle for loss

Miami Dolphins DT Christian Wilkins (No. 13 overall)

36 combined tackles, 1.0 sack, 2 tackles for loss

New York Giants DT Dexter Lawrence (No. 17 overall)

26 combined tackles, 2.5 sacks, 2 tackles for loss

The bottom line is that while it would have been nice for Tillery to play like his draft slot immediately, but there’s no reason to label him as a first-year ‘bust’. He hasn’t been primarily played in the role the Chargers drafted him for as a pass-rusher and there are signs of technical deficiencies that could easily be fixed.

I expect Tillery to continue to blossom into a key part of the defensive line by Year 2 or 3, where he’s racking up four or more sacks per season. The offseason will be essential to his growth. And keep in mind, Tillery will have a fresh slate as he spent a good chunk of this past offseason rehabbing his torn labrum.

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